The Australian Women's Weekly March 2018

There is little doubt that women are having a moment. The chorus of female voices coming forward to speak their truth and support each other over recent months has been quite remarkable. As I was thinking about my opening speech for a presentation on female futures and how we can harness this momentum to affect real change, it struck me that this movement to recognise and celebrate women’s diversity, strengths and achievements is actually nothing new for The Weekly. While it was heartening to see global news icon Time Magazine name six women as its Person of the Year in 2017, it’s easy to forget the title was only changed from “man of the year” in 1999. At The Weekly we have been recognising and celebrating women every week, month,…

HOW IT IS Honesty – that’s what you get from Helen Mirren (A New Day Is Dawning, AWW February). It’s a wonderful thing that Helen [right] and other women like her are speaking up and telling it how it really is, both in Hollywood and life in general, and showing that we can go as far as we want to go in life. I’m sure she’ll have her “moment in time” for a long while to come. J. Clancy, Fairfield, NSW. CHEERS TO THE WEEKLY I’ve been reading The Women’s Weekly for over 40 years. The February issue is one of the best I’ve ever read. Jam-packed with outstanding articles about women we all love, plus regular features. I’m 69, a semi-retired teacher now working part-time. I can’t put this…

A NEW WITNESS has come forward in the unsolved death of Hollywood star Natalie Wood. The body of the actress was pulled from the water off the LA coast after a night of drinking with her husband, Robert Wagner, and Christopher Walken, in 1981. Initially declared accidental, her lonely death was suspicious, police have since said. LA homicide detectives revealed earlier this month that they want to question Wagner again in light of new evidence, saying his story “doesn’t add up”. On her last night on earth, Wood invited Walken to join her and Wagner on their cruiser, The Splendour. Another person aboard the boat, Dennis Davern, in 2011 revealed new details of the night, saying a fight broke out between Wagner and Walken, and Wagner accused his wife of…

RAISING EYEBROWS High-end fashion house Balenciaga has made haute-couture crocs. Despite a $1075 price tag for the rubber shoes, they sold out before they even hit stores. DON’T MISS THE BOAT If you’ve always dreamed of owning a boat but baulked at the cost, a US company has come up with a DIY motorboat kit. The plywood cruiser seats one, is powered by two 12-volt batteries and costs about $1215. SHOCKING PINK Women-only car spaces in China are causing a stir on social media. The bright-pink spaces are marked with stiletto heels and, strangely, are 1.5 times wider than regular, non-gendered car spaces.…

Try to imagine a cold so intense that, if you throw a cup of tea in the air, the liquid will have frozen before it hits the ground. A cold so fierce it freezes everything: your sweat, your breath, the cheese and sausages you planned to eat for lunch, your toothpaste and your pigtails. That was the minus-50-degree cold that 16-year-old Jade Hameister dealt with every day for 37 days as she became the first-ever woman to travel a new route from the coast to the South Pole, unsupported and unassisted. Dressed in six layers of thermals, fleeces, shell and down jackets, she pushed into 40 knot headwinds, lugging a 100kg sled behind her. Some days progress was snail-like, with Jade zig zagging up walls of snow and ice that…

1 The Spice Girls released a photo of a get-together at Geri “Ginger Spice” Horner’s home, where they caught up over sushi and prosecco and discussed future projects. 2 Helena Bonham Carter (left) will join the cast of The Crown to play Princess Margaret. 3 Meryl Streep (above, left) will appear with Nicole Kidman in season two of Big Little Lies . 4 Carrie Bickmore attended a party in the very costume belonging to Emma of The Wiggles . 5 Taronga Zoo has miraculously bred 20 feathertail gliders. The smallest gliders in the world, when born, they are little bigger than half a grain of rice.…